Lock down your UC system to prevent the theft or loss of sensitive business information

Companies large and small have embraced VoIP (voice over IP) and unified communications (UC), and malicious parties are there, too. In fact, some research firms estimate that targeted attacks on VoIP infrastructure account for as much as one third of all attacks around the world, in part because companies haven’t secured their VoIP and UC systems as well as other online applications like email. Unauthorized persons can use holes in UC systems to sneak onto your network, access stored business data like sensitive customer information, or commit toll fraud.

What is the saying, two great tastes that taste great (better) together? This is in essence, the best way to describe the value of putting your Cisco Unified Communications on the Cisco Unified Computing Platform. While its certainly logical that we do something like this but and to the benefit of our customers, we have steadily increased the number of materials that help explain not just why this can be a huge cost and workflow savings, but also how one goes about doing it.

You can get a lot of written details but we of course suggest you watch one of our latest in the ‘Fundamentals’ series to get you ready.

Imagine running a call center where all of your phones rang for a single call and your operators had to roshambo to decide who would answer. Pure chaos, right? Well, that describes the situation Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores) was in before INX (recently acquired by Presidio) stepped in to upgrade and enhance their networking capabilities. (Okay, maybe without the roshambo part, but still chaotic nonetheless.)

Wayfair is the largest online retailer in the home goods space. As they grew from a two-person company to one with 800 employees, they looked to INX to provide various network solutions—from expanding their older VoIP-based telephony solution to designing and implementing a scalable Cisco Unified Communications/Collaboration Solution.

Wayfair Co-founder and Chairman Steve Conine says, “We really needed to upgrade to a system that had much more sophisticated routing and better tie-in with our call order system. Having the ability to take advantage of some of the Cisco wireless phone technology for the operators on the floor and the warehouse has been pretty neat.”

Steve also gives glowing reviews of INX. “Over the years, working with INX, they’ve really become a trusted advisor to our IT operations group.”

But INX didn’t become Wayfair’s trusted advisor overnight. Watch as Steve shares why INX continues to be a group he relies on when it comes to providing network solutions.

Before you take the leap into unified communications, make sure your top choice will meet business and users’ needs

Despite its inception as enterprise technology, unified communications (UC)—with its convergence of voice, video, and data communications on a single IP-based network—offers small businesses several benefits. Users can easily make a call, send an email or instant message, or launch a voice or video conference through a single interface on their computers. In addition, UC can help- keep mobile workers more closely connected to the rest of your employees and enable better collaboration among everyone in your company.

Companies are recognizing these benefits and turning to UC more and more. In fact, according to research firmAMI-Partners, small to medium-size businesses in the U.S. are expected to double their spending on UC solutions by 2015.

If you’re among the many small businesses planning to add UC to your network, you may be shopping around for a solution right now. Before you decide, you’ll want to take these five considerations into account:

In the third chapter of our Valley Sleep Center customer story, we get a closer look at the company’s phone system upgrade. Working closely with a Cisco certified partner who understood its needs, Valley Sleep Center replaced its inefficient phone system with a user-friendly Cisco UC540 solution. In the past, calls were routed to a single location, and periods of high volume were frequent. Now empowered by the right network, employees in the five locations share the load and can route calls efficiently. Watch the video to learn more.

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